December 1, 2024, 7:28 pm | Read time: 15 minutes
Eating bratwurst, drinking mulled wine, and standing around in the cold: This is what many Christmas market visits look like. But there are other ways, much more unusual. There are plenty of quirky Advent markets in Germany – from vegan and raunchy to kitschy, playful, and totally underground. A selection of the most bizarre Christmas markets – one in every federal state!
Mulled wine, bratwurst, and a more or less shapely conifer with lots of lights and glitter: this is what you can find in almost every major city during the Advent season, and many of these Christmas markets are very beautiful. But where can you find markets under railroad bridges, in an Advent calendar, or with an erotic twist? TRAVELBOOK shows 16 extraordinary Christmas markets for a guaranteed varied Advent season.
Overview
Baden-Württemberg
Twinkling Lights Under the Railroad Viaduct
At the gorge exit to the upper Höllental valley in the Upper Black Forest, there is a Christmas market that is definitely one of the most extraordinary Christmas markets in the country: 40 wooden huts are set up under an illuminated viaduct, offering arts and crafts, savory, as well as sweet treats from the Black Forest – such as ham, Schupfnudeln, tarte flambée, and hot baked apple liqueur.
Postcards with wishes can be handed in to Santa Claus at the Christmas post office at the Christmas market Ravenna Gorge. The story of Jesus’ birth is told on a crib trail in the forest. Of course, the stalls also have all kinds of arts and crafts on offer.
A Christmas market rally is organized for young visitors, at the end of which a small reward awaits. Admission costs 5.50 euros; under 15s pay nothing. The market is open from Friday to Sunday between November 22 and December 15.
Bavaria
Western Meets Christmas
Lasso throwing, pony rides, and breakneck shows at High Noon are normally on the program in “Pullman City” north-east of Passau. But during the Advent season, the Western theme park is transformed into a “Winter Western Wonderland,” according to its own advertising.
Santa Claus sings on Main Street, accepts Christmas wishes in front of his ranch and asks the elves to take a souvenir photo with him, while around 30 traders have set up their stalls with jewelry, pottery, clothing, wood, and leather goods at the Christmas market around the “Christmas Alehouse”.
Of course, mulled wine and cookies are not to be missed, and the “Pullman Barn” serves burgers as well as bratwurst to the sound of live music. Dancing is allowed. A show team will bring various Christmas traditions from all over the world to the stage with St. Lucia, the witch Befana and others.
Admission costs 13.50 euros for those aged 15 and over and 4.50 euros for those aged between four and 14. The extraordinary German-American Christmas market is open Thursdays to Sundays between November 15 and December 22 (closed on November 21).
Berlin
Gift-giving in Organic
Sustainability is the focus here, as the name itself makes clear: At the Environmental and Christmas market in Berlin-Mitte, everything from the sausages to the mulled wine is organic, and the crafts on offer also focus on fairness and environmental awareness, as the berlin.de portal writes.
There are no rides to save energy. Instead, angels and fantasy creatures roam around on stilts, and Santa Claus also drops by every day. The market takes place on Sophienstraße on all Advent weekends. It is centrally located, not far from tourist attractions such as the Hackesche Höfe.
Brandenburg
Polish Christmas Tradition in Potsdam
What is Christmas culture like in other countries? Often also contemplative, but different in details than in this country. This also applies to Poland, where Christmas is traditionally heralded on Christmas Eve with the appearance of the first star in the night sky, as described on the website of the Star Market, which takes place from November 29 to December 1 in Potsdam: in the Kutschstallhof, part of the Brandenburg capital’s city palace.
Typical local handicrafts await you at the market stalls, and you can eat pierogi, cabbage pot, waffles, gingerbread, and Tatar specialties.
According to the organizers, the highlight is the Star Festival, with a 20-hour cultural program of children’s theater, circus, traditional dance, and concerts spread over the three days of the market. Admission to this market in the list of extraordinary Christmas markets in Germany is 3 euros and free for everyone up to the age of 14.
Bremen
Coziness in the Wooden Winter Village
Around the town hall and along the Weser are the classic, but also very popular, Bremen Christmas markets. For a quieter experience, visit Findorf Winter Village, north of the city center. The huts in this extraordinary Christmas market are self-built, and in September the organizers were still looking for helping hands via Facebook to “get started.”
This year, the winter village was set up for the tenth time – it has been open since November 8 and will remain open until the end of January. That’s why it’s called the Winter Village, not the Christmas Village. The atmosphere is cozy; there is mulled wine and hot cocktails. You can also eat crêpes, bratwurst, hand bread, and soups. Perfect for a few relaxing hours.
Hamburg
A Sensually Festive Christmas Market
On Spielbudenplatz, Sankt Pauli becomes Santa Pauli during the Advent season: as expected, the Christmas tradition is interpreted in a frivolous way – with “hot angels on the show stage” and “erotic gift ideas”, as the operators write. But apparently, children are also allowed. This extraordinary Christmas market has been running since November 11 and will continue until December 23.
It’s worth making a detour to the mulled wine pharmacy, where you can put together your own warming creation based on a red or white wine. You can do this by adding the flavors of your choice with pipettes – plum, star anise, orange, and much more are available.
There is also pink unicorn mulled wine at the pharmacy. But only on Mondays, because of the “rare” ingredients, such as the “hand-grated unicorn tail extract” (website quote). However, with a bit of luck, the drink is also served on other days – as long as you ask the staff nicely.
Hesse
Christmas Between Reindeer and Fairy Tales
Sababurg Zoo is also home to reindeer, predestining the place for a Christmas market. In fact, there is a big Christmas market once a year – this time on the second weekend of Advent (Dec. 7 and 8). Where wolves, various types of deer and horses, tortoises, and birds of prey usually wait alongside reindeer, there are market stalls with blacksmiths, pottery, and woodwork too. You can also see and hear knights, medieval music, and fire shows. There’s food too, of course.
By the way, Sababurg Castle, which gives the park its name and stands on the edge of the zoo, is also known as Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. With its rose garden and towers, it is said to have served the Brothers Grimm as a model for the castle in which Sleeping Beauty fell into her 100-year sleep after pricking herself on a cursed spindle. Until a prince came along and kissed her awake.
Sababurg is located in the Reinhardswald Nature Park, north of Kassel. If you want to visit the extraordinary Christmas market in the zoo, you have to pay the normal entrance fee for the park: Adults: 10.50 euros; children aged 4 to 15: 6 euros.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Festivities in the Fieldstone Barn
Once it had room for 650 cows, today the huge barn in Bollewick an der Müritz is a cultural and event venue – and once a year, the 10,000 square meters of space under the roof of the building fill with Christmas cheer.
On the first two Advent weekends (Nov. 30-Dec. 1; Dec. 7-8), there is an Advent market in what the operators claim is the largest fieldstone barn in Germany. On December 13 (a Friday – hopefully not a bad festive omen …) there is a Christmas movie.
Lower Saxony
The Christmas Forest in Goslar
Together with the Rammelsberg mine, which is over 1,000 years old, and the buildings of the Upper Harz water management system, the old town of Goslar with its more than 1,500 half-timbered houses is a Unesco World Heritage Site. In the middle of it all, on the Schuhhof, the Christmas forest is “growing” again this year.
Conifers from the Harz Mountains are lined up close together, hung with 160,000 lights, “fresh forest soil” is piled up, and stalls with mulled wine, arts and crafts, and sweet and savory treats are set up. The atmosphere is unique. And to make sure it stays that way – again this year from November 27 to December 30 – the idea has been protected by the German Patent and Trademark Office.
If you would like to combine a visit to the Christmas forest and market with a guided tour of the Unesco World Heritage Site in Goslar, you can book this for 13 euros per person – including a drink in the Christmas forest.
North Rhine-Westphalia
Christmas Flair in a Renaissance Setting
A moated castle is romantic in itself, and when you add a medieval Christmas market to the mix, nothing could go wrong. Wasserschloss Merode, built in the Renaissance style on the edge of the Eifel near Düren, is the best example of this.
The pre-Christmas spectacle is open from November 27 to December 22 (admission charge from 4 euros), with the market closed on December 2 and 3. Food stalls offer potato pancakes and candy canes; the supporting program includes regular appearances by the Christ Child and Santa Claus, as well as tours with the Queen of Lights, Lucia. The operators of the traditional craft stalls encourage visitors to join in.
Musical fireworks are planned for Saturday, November 30, and Friday, December 20 – for an extra dose of illumination in the moat. On the Mondays of December 9 and 16, there will be mass in the castle chapel at 9.00 am, according to the Langerwehe central parish office.
Rhineland-Palatinate
Good Wine from the Underworld
Upon entering the gate, visitors are greeted by the scent of mulled wine, roasted almonds, and fir trees – so far, so normal. What makes the “Moselle Wine Night Market” in Traben-Trarbach different – and one of the extraordinary Christmas markets in Germany – is that it takes place underground in the former wine cellars of the town at the Middle Moselle. And the motto is “Wine, enjoyment & culture”.
22 kilometers of wine cellars run through the underground of Traben-Trarbach; around 1900, the town on the Moselle was even the largest wine trading metropolis next to Bordeaux (France). Eight of these wine cellars will be open again this winter from Friday to Sunday as a Christmas market, or rather: “Mosel Wine Night Market”. In addition to classic delicacies and decorations, there’s plenty to discover here to do with wine and wellness.
The Traben-Trarbach Christmas market is open every weekend between November 22 and December 1. Admission to the “Wine Night Cellars” costs 5 euros (from 16 years of age, under 16 free). Ticket wristbands are valid for the entire duration of the event.
Saarland
Where Santa Claus Flies in
At 5.00 p.m. and 7.00 p.m. on the opening days, the time has come: Santa Claus flies in. He in the reindeer sleigh, the Christ Child waving on a cloud below, they float high above the St. Johann market. And if you can imagine it without the supporting wire rope, you can indulge in this Christmas illusion – at the Christkindl market in Saarbrücken.
It is open from November 18 to December 24 and from December 27 to 30. Stalls are, of course, selling arts and crafts, mulled wine, and roasted almonds in Bahnhofstraße and St. Johanner Markt. Special features include an adjacent ice skating rink in Bahnhofstraße (admission: 5 euros), as well as the opportunity to view the Christmassy city of Saarbrücken from above: during a ride on the 50-meter-high Jupiter Ferris wheel (regular price: 7 euros; children aged 3 and over: 4 euros).
Saxony
Historic Market with Protection from Bad Weather
The backdrop of Königstein is impressive: the huge fortress in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains stands high above the Elbe. A historic Christmas market is held here on the Advent weekends: In keeping with the location (Königstein was expanded into a fortress from 1563), visitors find “handcrafted” wooden stalls in the courtyard, and the traders wear old garments.
“Goulash soup and fortress punch are steaming in large copper pots over open fires,” the organizers write. And if the weather doesn’t play along at the fortress south-east of Dresden, there is a weather-protected strolling area in the underground vaults (casemates) of Königstein.
Because the crowds are often so large, tickets are limited for the first time this year – to 7,000 per market day. However, the organizers reassure that this is almost as many as the previous record number of visitors. Adults pay 15 euros; children from the age of 7 pay 12 euros; younger children get in for free, but also need a (free) ticket. Tickets are only available online and have been on sale since September.
Saxony-Anhalt
Christmas World Heritage
There could hardly be a more beautiful location for a Christmas market than Quedlinburg. Surrounded by historic half-timbered houses, there are stalls, a large pyramid, and the big Christmas tree. The market in the Harz town runs from November 27 to December 22. According to the town, there are around 2,100 half-timbered houses from eight centuries in the area, which has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1994.
A visit to Quedlinburg is particularly worthwhile on the first three Advent weekends (Nov. 30-Dec. 1, Dec. 7-8, and Dec. 14-15): In addition to the Christmas market, private courtyards that are otherwise closed also open to visitors – with crafts to buy or culinary delights to enjoy.
The living Advent calendar is great for children: Every day at 4.30 pm, the search for the Christmas door of the day starts from the central tourist information office on the nearby Schloßberg, with sweet surprises and fairy-tale characters in disguise behind it. Only on Christmas Eve does the search start earlier, at 1.00 pm. After all, many people are already giving presents in the afternoon.
Schleswig-Holstein
Tönning’s Grand Advent Calendar
It is 77.5 meters long and 13 meters high, and when Advent arrives, it illuminates with almost a million lights. That alone makes the historic packing house at the harbor in the North Frisian town of Tönning an eye-catcher that awakens pre-Christmas feelings.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the architectural landmark on the Eider Canal is also the longest Advent calendar in the world. Windows are numbered from one to 24, and from December 1 a new number lights up every day.
The large calendar can be accessed via the central main entrance on the first floor. Inside, coffee and delicacies await. And stalls with arts and crafts, from felt work and jewelry to wooden toys and carvings. Of course, Santa Claus also drops by.
Admission to the so-called Tönning Christmas event is free. The Packhaus is open on the Advent weekends and on December 29.
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Thuringia
Christmas Market at Wartburg Castle
Disguised as Junker Jörg, Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German at Wartburg Castle over 500 years ago. The castle’s famous Luther Room is also open to visitors during the historic Christmas market.
But Advent in the courtyards of the castle, which has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1999, means above all a lesson in almost forgotten crafts: candle makers, glassblowers, robe makers, lantern makers, soap boilers, stonemasons, and pewterers present and sell their products. Musicians in medieval costumes parade around.
Guided tours of the medieval palace are also on the program. Those who climb the south tower of the castle have a great view of the Thuringian Forest. Admission to this last one of the extraordinary Christmas markets, which opens on weekends between November 30 and December 15, costs 10 euros, half price for those aged between 7 and 18.
With material from dpa